Can't innovate. Don't innovate. Go nowhere.’

high wire 2
Originally uploaded by _gee_

Sir George Cox has stated that in Britain

"We don't understand the relevance of design, suffer from lack of imagination and aren't ambitious enough.”

Yet if we look at the spend on design it is evident that whilst many organisations invest in design they do not see a significant return for it, which is hardly an incentive for them to continue, or for others to take the plunge themselves, which explains why Sir George suggests that our mantra is

"Can't innovate. Don't innovate. Go nowhere."

A key strategic role of design is making ideas tangible, telling the story of alternative futures, and defining the actual products and services to make those stories become experiences. therefore, it should be a strategic imperative that we use appropriate technologies, techniques and capabilities of design in the most effective way, maximising the return on our innovation investment. Yet, as we have said,many organisations invest in design through in-house resources or external agencies, without gaining much traction. I remember talking to an advanced projects team that were tasked with coming up with longer-term radical solutions and their complaint was that they're projects were judged by the same criteria as near term incremental projects which meant they didn't stand a chance. The project leader observed:

"Our project teams have previously carried out work creating visions of the future and identifying new customer opportunities, which has generated a substantial amount of new ideas. However we have lacked a process to convert these creative ideas into radical new concepts and prototypes that are tangible expressions of business opportunities and marketable products. We need to develop processes that support fledgling ideas and enable breakthrough ideas to be realised. A key issue is to work differently across all our disciplines (such as Research, Design, Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, Human Resources, partners and sub-contractors) as a continuum in order to deliver inspiring solutions to the marketplace that pack a  sustainable competitive clout.

In a nutshell, ideas must be allowed to break through barriers and present themselves to decision makers.“

Picture uploaded by sekimura. Used with thanks under CC.

Several challenges are contained in this statement that are essential to delivering a sustainable stream of winning new products and services. These challenges include better up-front design processes that support the emergence of more substantial concepts that are not killed by an inappropriate response to the uncertainty that is often the outcome of conventional risk management techniques. Collaboration between specialist disciplines that enable concepts to be assessed against the capabilities available in-house and outside. stronger links between strategic intent and project ambitions. Working differently means adopting different tools or adapting those we already have to achieve different ends.

Picture uploaded by MoonSoleil . Used with thanks under CC.

Collaboration:

If we look in a dictionary we will find it is defined as:

1. A joint intellectual effort

2. Treasonable cooperation with an enemy

Derived from: (Latin) com (with) + laborare (work) = work together

To elaborate is to extend an idea; to co-laborate is to do so with partners.

The problem is, that in the past conventional business models assumed the second definition was more likely to be true and so information was closely guarded and so no leverage came from sharing and discussing it.

Picture uploaded by fatal Cleopatra . Used under CC.

Real collaboration involves being open and frank, sharing information and knowledge to maximise the opportunity for the whole team to co-create motivating insights and a common vision of a winning product or service. We need to set our radicals free and be bold enough to reveal all our cards at the beginning of the process when maximum leverage is derived from the act of sharing.

Picture uploaded by ralphunden . Used with thanks under CC.

Today we must approach design from a different perspective. Truly sustainable design is based on a wide range of complex criteria; human experience, social, global, economic and political issues; physical and mental interaction, form, vision, and a rigorous understanding of contemporary culture. Manufacturing is based on another collective group of criteria: capital investment, market share, ease of production, dissemination, growth, distribution, maintenance and service, performance, quality, ecological issues and sustainability. Services are delivered through the application of products by the service providers. Experiences evolve where these services are the stage and products are used as props to engage the people. The combination of all these issues- of validity for our consumers and viability for our organisations- has come to shape our objects, informs our aesthetic, our physical space and culture, and our human experiences.(apologies to Karim Rashid)

To achieve great products, services and experience collaboration between all the key players needs to go up a gear and really engage in creating something special because of their knowledge and expertise and despite their functional positions and organisational loyalties. But if all the top team are not committed to changing the process of creating new 'stuff' then both definitions of collaboration might come into play with functional heads seeing collaboration as an act of disloyalty. But designing something memorable for the consumer may be all we have left to differentiate ourselves from the competition... and that means people discovering, adopting and exploiting processes, technologies and techniques to  collaborate effectively across barriers between all the people who can produce something special.


Picture uploaded by Yodel Anecdotal. Used with thanks under CC.

"In a world of largely saturated markets and many alternatives, astonishing the customer [through superior design] is the path to exceptional growth." -- Robert Heller, marketing guru